Semiotic Neighborhoods Ilpo Koskinen

This paper was first presented at the Introduction “Nordiskt seminarium om urban- och boende- In his Philosophy of Money, the classic sociologist Georg Simmel noted forskning” in Hanasaari, Helsinki, November that industrial products “lack the spiritual determinacy that can be 17–19, 2002. In addition to the participants easily perceived in a product of labor that is wholly the work of a in that conference, I would like to thank Visa single person.” When produced in large quantities, products have Heinonen, Mika Pantzar, Nely Keinänen, Pekka Korvenmaa, Victor Margolin, and the review- to be designed so they are “acceptable and enjoyable to a very large ers of Design Issues. number of individuals,” and therefore “cannot be designed for subjective differentiation of taste.” In contrast, some products still have a personality: we can personally relate to them. For Simmel, such products include works of art, philosophical treatises, and crafts.1 Markets certainly have understood the craving for more personalized products. Take the example of a design icon, the “Juicy Salif“ lemon squeezer, designed for Alessi by Philippe Starck. In the summer of 2000, the Juicy Salif sold for 40 Euros in Helsinki (a gold-plated one sold for 150 Euros). The fact that it is practically unusable makes it easy to see as an object of art. If it were displayed in a museum, it would be no more than an object of reflection. In ordinary contexts, however, it is available for use. An analysis of this object can focus on the product, but also on the designer, the company, or even the art and design world. It offers multiple possi- bilities for reflexive consumers who seek to build their identities through design objects, fashion, and art. It also is partly through 1 G. Simmel, The Philosophy of Money these objects that people define good taste.2 (London: Routledge, 1990), 454–7. These are “semiotic goods”: most of their economic value is 2 M. Featherstone, Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (London: Sage, 1994); based on meanings people give them rather than their functionality, S. Lash, Another Modernity, a Different be these iconic, indexical, or symbolic. Unlike unsigned products, or Rationality (London: Blackwell, 1999); P. products from flea markets, these meanings support and maintain Bourdieu, Distinction (London: RKP, 1986); significant parts of the economy. Today, the worldwide worth of G. Simmel, ibid. the luxury retail sector alone, depending on the estimate, is 55–100 3 WWW information from www.hsbc.com, billion Euros. This sector makes its living mainly from fragrances, www.mintel.com. 4 G. Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds cosmetics, jewelry, watches, accessories, and fashion. Its main market on Welfare Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity, is Asia, followed by the United States and Europe.3 In addition to 1990); and J. B. Pine and J. H. Gilmore, goods, “semiotized” services and experiences are a part of our The Experience Economy (Boston: everyday life. In the U.S., since the early 1960s “fun services” and Harvard University Press, 1999). “experience industries” have grown faster than other sectors of the 5 J. Baudrillard, The Consumer Society 4 (London: Sage, 1998); and J. Baudrillard, economy. Some theorists have generalized that this development is Symbolic Exchange and Death (London: part of a postmodern world in which the real world is so absorbed Sage, 1999). into signs that people cannot escape from this signed reality.5

© 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Design Issues: Volume 21, Number 2 Spring 2005 13

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 The received wisdom is that this new consumption scene originated among the new, high-earning middle classes in global cities, with a recent estimate putting their number at fifty million worldwide.6 This new consumption also has changed the look and feel of the shopping environment. While cities have lost many of their department stores, they have gained “megastores,” shops-in- shops, flagship stores, posh restaurants, cafés, art galleries, antique stores, and luxury retail shops. In this paper, I call some areas with a high concentration of these types of places of consumption “semi- otic neighborhoods.” These areas live off selling and manufacturing semiotic goods. They are different from entertainment districts, which have a high concentration of movie theaters, theaters, restau- rants, and bars. They also differ from malls. Unlike malls, semiotic neighborhoods are historical creations in which the streets belong to people, property ownership is decentralized, and passersby are exposed to a full scale of life rather than to a managed version of it.

Semiotic Neighborhoods Downtown areas have dominated consumption for much of the twentieth century. Consumption in downtown areas is led by traditional department stores. Another dominant form of trade today follows suburban expansion. As suburbs have grown in North America and in Europe, retail trade has followed popula- tion to the suburbs, where retail corporations and developers have 6 S. Sassen, The Global City: New York, created large, centrally managed malls and retail parks. In terms London, Tokyo (Princeton: Princeton of services, more upscale malls resemble higher-end department University Press, 1991); M. Savage, stores, with boutiques embedded in them. Typically catering to the et al., Property, Bureaucracy, and middle-classes, department stores and malls offer a wide range of Culture (London: Routledge, 1995); www.mintel.com; and P. Ray and S. goods and services, some of higher quality than others, but overall, 7 Anderson, The Cultural Creatives (New their business is geared towards the middle-income customer. Less York: Three Rivers Press, 2000). mobile classes and younger customers consume in what sociologist 7 G. McCracken, Culture and Consumption: Sharon Zukin calls “neighborhood shopping streets.” 8 New Approaches to Symbolic Character In contrast to these forms of mass consumption, exclusive of Consumer Goods and Activities goods traditionally have been available for the rich in the first type (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988); R. Sennett, “The Fall of the Public of semiotic neighborhoods. As Lewis Mumford noted in The Culture Man” in On the Social Psychology of of Cities, hand-crafted, quality goods with extraordinary prices are Capitalism (New York: Vintage, 1978); available for the traditional upper classes in places such as New and M. B. Miller, The Bon Marché: Bond Street, Rue de la Paix, and Madison Avenue.9 As they are exclu- Bourgeois Culture and the Department sively upper-class, goods and services in these streets and neighbor- Store, 1869–1920 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981). hoods are far beyond the reach of ordinary consumers, except for 8 S. Zukin, The Cultures of Cities (Malden, window-shopping. Some of these streets have existed for centuries, MA: Blackwell, 1999). Of course, at the and typically are rooted in royal courts and aristocratic consumption high end of department stores, luxury in Europe, and in their capitalist equivalents in North America. brands typically are present as shops-in- A more recent development has created another type of shops. Here, the line between boutiques semiotic neighborhood: designer streets and quarters. At the more and department stores vanishes. 9 L. Mumford, Kaupunkikulttuuri (Porvoo, exclusive end, there are a few ultimate designer streets: Avenue Finland: WSOY, 1949), 214. (Originally, Montaigne and Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré in Paris, the quadri- The Culture of Cities.) latero in Milan, London’s Sloane Street, and parts of New York’s Fifth

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 Avenue.10 Similar displays of luxury exist in all global cities.11 Smaller cities and less exclusive areas in global cities have developed local versions of these luxury streets, as witnessed by the examples of 10 For a recent and amusing analysis of luxury Strøget in Copenhagen and North Esplanade in Helsinki. Shops in products, shops, producers, and custom- these streets offer a vast selection of goods, ranging in price from 5 ers on these streets, see J. B. Twitchell, Euro key rings, to 25,000 Euro jackets to 100,000 Euro watches and Living It Up: America’s Love Affair with Luxury (New York: Simon & Schuster, upwards. 2002). Twitchell studies in detail Semiotic neighborhoods have many functions in cities. They boutiques on Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills), supply people with goods, services, and experiences with which Worth Avenue (Miami), Las Vegas; as they may construe identities and partake in conspicuous consump- well as “mothership shops” in midtown tion. They attract tourism, educated residents, and creative inhabit- Manhattan. ants. Their indirect economic effects come through services such 11 S. Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. For Sassen, global cities as restaurants, museums, coffee shops, and elegant magazines. are cities capable of envisioning, orga- Furthermore, these areas may become important elements in build- nizing, and financing business as well ing a city’s image. These neighborhoods also connect local society as other activities on a global scale. to global taste, and provide the cultural understanding any modern They are central nodes in the most economy needs to function. Finally, they provide work for local recent wave of globalization, and differ 12 from “world cities” that have led world artists, designers, and craftspeople. culture for centuries. For Sassen, the Traditional luxury shop areas aside, semiotic neighborhoods global economy is shaped by activities only fairly recently have become elements of cityscapes, from the organized in global cities rather than by mid-1960s.13 Also, their tendency to concentrate in certain neighbor- major corporations as such. She holds hoods is a fairly recent phenomenon. Success breeds more success; that global cities have become a home to in the end, several shops flock to the same area, pushing other busi- a group of professionals with top salaries who, in turn, create a market for designer nesses out. Some functions win in this competitive process, and come goods and services. Thus, she links the to dominate business in that area to the point where it becomes the current expansion of the luxury market to neighborhood’s second nature. the global city phenomenon. In her origi- Take Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, with its extrav- nal book, Sassen analyzed global cities agant displays of luxury, as an example. Rodeo Drive was elevated to mainly in terms of financial markets, concentrating on New York, London, and its present status fairly recently; in fact, the first international luxury Tokyo (and Frankfurt and Paris in passim). shops arrived at this short stretch of land at the end of the 1960s. In more recent editions, she has widened Aldo [Gucci] continued the drive to open new stores. the term to include places such as Los He identified Beverly Hills’s then sleepy Rodeo Drive as Angeles and Berlin (leaders in culture) a choice location long before it became a chic shopping and Chicago (multinational corporations, avenue, and in October 1968 inaugurated an elegant new world-class science), but also to smaller cities such as Stockholm and Helsinki store there with a star-studded fashion show and recep- (mobile communications technology). tion.14 12 R. Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class (New York: Basic Books, 2002), There had been jewelry shops, antique dealers, and high-end cloth- 165–89; S. Zukin, The Cultures of iers before, but with the likes of Gucci, other luxury shops followed. Cities; V. Narotzky, “A Different and New Refinement: Design in Barcelona, Today, more than fifty luxury shops populate this stretch of land (see 1960–1990,” Journal of Design www.rodeodrive.com). History 13 (2000): 227–43; E. W. Soja, In contrast to most consumer goods, proximity to other shops Postmetropolis (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000); benefits the design trade: a Gucci bag is not identical to a Hermès and A. J. Scott, The Cultural Economy of bag. Since it is the semiotics embedded in products that makes Cities (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2000). the difference, not the price, proximity to other shops benefits the 13 S. Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, 335–6. economy. When people and media recognize an area as a semiotic 14 S. Gay Forden, The House of Gucci (New neighborhood, the area gets a “character.” Circulated in media and York: Harper-Collins, 2000), 35. folklore, this character directs people to these areas to browse goods

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 and services, and to enjoy the atmosphere. These inscriptions of place guide consumers’ actions “from a distance,” as the French philosopher Bruno Latour says.15 Shopkeepers’ associations may develop to market the exclusive facet of the area (see the Oak Street Council, www.oakstreetchicago.com), as does trend journalism. When such second-order cultural constructs come to shape the city, entrepreneurs’ location decisions go beyond economics alone, and are ultimately grounded in cultural processes. To justly be called a semiotic neighborhood, I believe that three necessary conditions have to be met. First, the distribution of sophisticated semiotic goods has to concentrate in these areas: every part of a city cannot be established as a semiotic neighborhood.16 Secondly, these areas have to have to have a dense enough concen- tration of semiotic business to give them a special look and feel in contrast to department stores, retailing, banks, or business services. Third, these areas have to be written into the popular imagination with maps and other media coverage. Without such inscription, people cannot get to these areas, and shopkeepers cannot locate there because of the “atmosphere” of these neighborhoods. 15 B. Latour, “Drawing Things Together” in Representation in Scientific Practice, Data and Methods M. Lynch and S. Woolgar, eds. This paper analyses semiotic neighborhoods in Helsinki, Finland. (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1991). They are mostly located in South Helsinki, which dominates the 16 Possible exceptions are small holiday resorts at, say, the French Riviera; small national trade in arts, antiquities, design furniture, accessories, artistic colonies; and “latte towns,” as and fashion. In particular, neighborhoods surrounding downtown the journalist David Brooks has called Helsinki contain a series of shops, as well as producers of culture wealthy, upper-middle class suburban such as advertising agencies, architectural firms, designer work- towns in his book on “bobos,” the bohe- shops, and interior design studios. As in any successful restructured mian bourgeois. See D. Brooks, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How postindustrial city economy, the crafts industries also have become 17 They Got There (New York: Simon important wealth creators in these areas of Helsinki. This article & Schuster, 2000). focuses on goods rather than on services (such as luxury beauty 17 I. Koskinen, “Kulttuurikorttelit,” parlors) or live entertainment (music, theater, and other cultural Yhteiskuntasuunnittelu 39 (2001): 9–28. events). It also focuses on distribution, not on production (architects, [Culture Blocks, in Finnish]; and E. W. designers, interior designers, sound production, and advertising). Soja, Postmetropolis, 164. 18 On cultural events and their significance Finally, public sector investments in symbolic facilities such as opera in the “symbolic” city economy, see houses and theaters are excluded, because these are based on politi- S. Zukin, The Cultures of Cities. For an cal rather than market impulses.18 I have had to limit my analysis analysis of production, see S. Lash and in several ways. I have not studied fashion, which means that the J. Urry, Economies of Sign and Space downtown is underrepresented. Also, department store and mall (London: Sage, 1994); and A. McRobbie, British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or distribution of luxury items is not included. Image Industry? (London: Routledge, The term “semiotic business” is the main unit of data gather- 1998). Incidentally, cultural production in ing. First, semiotic businesses include shops selling designer goods, the Helsinki region concentrates in south arts, and antiques, and related services (such as interior design), but Helsinki. Even new digital industries have not knowledge-based services such as research and law. Secondly, located in these neighborhoods, much it includes producers such as interior decorators, industrial design- like architecture in the early decades of the twentieth century, and the advertis- ers, and architects, but also TV, video and sound producers, new ing industry later in the century (see I. media companies, and advertising agencies. The concept of semi- Koskinen, “Kulttuurikorttelit”). otic neighborhood can be broken into smaller units. For example, in

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 areas that otherwise are empty of semiotic business, there may be “semiotic corners”—street corners on which semiotic business domi- nates the scene; the concentration of designer outlets at Brompton Cross in Knightsbridge, London, provides an example. Streets that are dominated by semiotic businesses are called “semiotic streets”; Union Street in San Francisco is an example. Finally, a “semiotic neighborhood” consists of a set of semiotic streets packed together; perhaps the best example is New York’s SoHo, in which more than one hundred fashion boutiques exist between Lafayette, Sullivan, West Houston, and Broome Streets. Data for this article came from three types of sources: (1) Data on shops (1952, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000) was obtained from the “Yellow Pages” directory, and was supplemented with design organizations’ catalogs; (2) Cultural inscriptions were studied in general-purpose shopping guides, commercial maps distributed by department stores, and art and design maps. Helsinki This Week provided a time series back to 1956. It contains a monthly listing of places and events of interest to tourists; (3) Statistics used came from Statistics Finland, and the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa. The Appendix locates south Helsinki neighborhoods on the map; readers unfamiliar with Helsinki ought to consult it at this point. For my analyses, I divided Helsinki into the following five zones. The first three constitute “south Helsinki”: 1 “Downtown” consists of three neighborhoods; 2 “The downtown rim” denotes four neighborhoods adjacent to it; 3 “Other South” denotes three southern neighborhoods that do not belong to the downtown or its rim; 4 “Other town” refers to neighborhoods outside the south; 5 Espoo and Vantaa are major, independent municipalities bordering Helsinki. They are referred to with their own 19 E. Jutikkala, “Johtavat säädyt,” in names. Suomen kulttuurihistoria II (Jyväskylä: Gummerus, 1934), 33–65. [The Leading Finally, Helsinki has one peculiar feature when it comes to semi- Estates, in Finnish]; E. Jutikkala, “Varallisuussuhteet Suomessa Ruotsin- otic neighborhoods: it has no traditional luxury areas. The reasons ajan päättyessä,” Historiallinen for this probably are historical. Along with Bern and Dublin (and aikakauskirja 47 (1949): 170–206 [The possibly Oslo, which has had a royal family for less than a century), Distribution of Wealth in Finland at the Helsinki is the only European capital that has not been home to a End of the Swedish Era, in Finnish]; royal court. Finland also has had a small and poor aristocracy, which K. Wirilander, Herrasväkeä: Suomen säätyläistö 1721–1870 (Historiallisia historically has been based in Stockholm and St. Petersburg, rather 19 tutkimuksia 93, Helsinki: Suomen than Helsinki. Historiallinen Seura, 1974) [Gentry: Gentry in Finland 1721–1870, in Finnish]; The Concentration of Semiotic Business in South Helsinki and E. Konttinen, Perinteisesti moderniin: The first necessary condition for a neighborhood to be called “semi- Professioiden yhteiskunnallinen synty otic” is that business in that neighborhood is significantly more Suomessa (Tampere, Finland: Vastapaino, 1991) [Traditionally to Modernism: The semiotic than in other neighborhoods. In the citywide context, all Social Birth of Professions in Finland, neighborhoods in south Helsinki have become semiotic over the last in Finnish]. three decades of the last century.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 If we look at the antique and art trade, and interior design, we get a picture of the process. Table 1 shows that the antique trade became an important feature of the Helsinki landscape in the 1980s, not just in the south, but also in other town. A similar pattern char- acterizes the art trade, which grew to a quantitatively new level in the 1980s, and has continued to expand in the 1990s, although at a slower pace. In particular, south Helsinki is significantly over- represented in the art trade. In interior decoration, business spread to other parts of town in the 1960s, breaking the leading role of the south. The highest concentration of theaters, movie theaters, popular restaurants and bars, and live music establishments is in downtown Helsinki. The largest crowds in the evening flock to this downtown- based entertainment district.

Table 1 Distribution of Semiotic Businesses (frequencies)

1952 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Antiques South 20 11 18 31 69 65 Other town 0 0 1 8 14 17 Art South 17 14 17 29 41 56 Other town 0 0 2 4 19 7 Interiors South 18 29 25 21 49 56 Other town 4 9 12 11 43 39

In some respects, Table 1 has a mixed message. On the one hand, the south historically has led the art trade. On the other, the table shows that semiotic business grew faster in “other town” in the 1980s. However, the recession in the early 1990s hit business outside the south hard. Thus, the art trade again has concentrated in the south, with a similar development taking place in antiques as well as interior design. In the 1990s, the south added shops, while business elsewhere suffered. In qualitative terms, the high end of the market has concen- trated in the south. In 1990, seventy-seven percent of art galleries (in contrast to mere art dealers) were in the south. In 2001, this figure was ninety-three percent. In interior decoration, Italian, German, and Danish furniture, Italian and French accessories, and other foreign interior decoration textiles have all concentrated in the south. In 2001, ninety-two percent of boutiques with foreign names (Finnish, Swedish, and English names excluded) were there. In other parts of town, as well as in the suburbs, there were only two shops with foreign names. During the 1990s, the top end of galleries, antique shops, and interior design shops have selected their home neighbor-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 hood more conservatively than before, opting for southern locations. The south specializes in symbolically sophisticated goods; while cheaper goods are sold elsewhere in town.20 Figure 1 gives an index of how these three businesses devel- oped over the last four decades of the twentieth century. Notice that numbers are standardized by area size to compensate for growth of the city and its suburbs. The figure shows that the antique trade in the south grew more than five-fold between 1960 and 1997. In other parts of Helsinki, growth has been modest, if we relate it to their overall growth. If we take into account suburban sprawl in the neighboring cities of Espoo and Vantaa, the special role of the south would be even more staggering. Close to 300,000 inhabitants migrated to these towns between 1970 and 2000, but there still are only a handful of galleries, antique shops, or interior decoration shops in these cities, although both have set up civic centers.

Figure 1 — Figure 1 here - The development of Three Types of Semiotic Shops (shops/km2)

Thus, although business in general has spread out of the downtown area as the city has grown,21 semiotic business has coun- tered the trend and, in fact, has concentrated in the southern neigh- borhoods. With good justification, we can say that south Helsinki neighborhoods are “semiotic”: their economy revolves around signs more than the economies of other parts of town.

20 I. Koskinen, “Tuleeko keskustasta Which South Helsinki Neighborhoods Are Semiotic? kulutusparatiisi?” (Working paper. The second condition a neighborhood must fill to be called “semi- National Consumer Research Centre, otic” is that it is densely populated by semiotic businesses. This Helsinki, 2003) [“Is the City Going to be a section studies development within south Helsinki to see how semi- Consumer’s Paradise?” In Finnish, avail- able at www.ncrc.fi/publications/] otic business has located there. 21 S. Laakso, Yritystoiminnan alueellinen Figure 2 ranks Helsinki by area in terms of semiotic busi- erikoistuminen pääkaupunkiseudulla nesses (in 2000). The figure consists of art galleries and art shops, (Helsingin seudun suunnat 1/2002, art museums, antique dealers, antique and arts-oriented auction Helsinki: Tietokeskus, 2001) [The Spatial houses, and interior decoration shops that sell designer goods. For Differentiation of Business Activity in the comparison, this figure also gives a similar number for companies Capital Region, in Finnish]. 22 22 Including architects, industrial designers, that produce culture. The figures are standardized by the size of the interior designers, and other product area to account for size differences between the southern neighbor- design professionals. hoods and the rest of Helsinki.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 The concentration of business in the south is striking, if we compare these figures to the citywide average of 2.7 shops/km2, and 7.56 producers/km2. In terms of shops, all top eight neighborhoods are located in the south, and only three southern neighborhoods are missing from the top ten. Since Helsinki has almost 130 neighbor- hoods, these figures reveal a significant concentration of activity. Closer analysis shows that the downtown area has the densest concentration of shops, along with the downtown rim producers. The key message of the figure is that Helsinki’s semiotic marketplace is heavily concentrated downtown and in the neighborhoods in its immediate vicinity.

Figure 2 — Figure 1 here - Semiotic Business in Helsinki by Area (2000)

However, Helsinki’s central business district also is located in the south (see the Appendix). As dense as semiotic business is in this area, it is overshadowed by other economic activity. Figure 3 compensates for business activity, and elaborates the results of the previous figure by relating semiotic business to the overall number of businesses in the city. If an area’s score is above 100, semiotic busi- ness is overrepresented in it. For example, the figure shows that, if there were 100 businesses per square kilometer in the town, there would be 130 semiotic shops downtown, 170 in the downtown rim, 87 in other parts of the south, and 11 in other town.

Figure 3 — Figure 1 here - Semiotic Businesses and Other Economic Activity in Helsinki (indexed by overall busi- ness activity) (2000)

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 This figure shows that, even though significant in absolute numbers, semiotic business does not characterize the downtown. It has a significant number of semiotic shops, but its look and feel is based on the financial world, central government buildings, and department stores rather than art and design shops. In contrast, the downtown rim scores higher in this measure: compared to its share of economic activity and workplaces, semiotic business is overrep- resented in the downtown rim, and producers in other southern neighborhoods. If we look behind these figures, we see that west of downtown, the Punavuori neighborhood, in particular, stands out in terms of semiotic business. In all, seventeen percent of its businesses either sell or produce semiotic goods. There are more than ninety semiotic shops, and more than 230 producers in each square kilo- meter in Punavuori. An old, working-class area that has gentrified since the 1960s, Punavuori still has plenty of workspaces and small apartments, which creates conditions for artistic invasion. Helsinki’s semiotic neighborhoods surround the downtown: in the downtown rim, semiotic business is dense enough to give these neighborhoods a special character.23

The Cultural Inscription of Semiotic Neighborhoods The third condition required for a semiotic neighborhood is that it is marked culturally with concepts and maps. Without such inscrip- tions, customers would not know what to seek in these areas, and there would be one economic reason less for entrepreneurs and busi- nesses to settle there. The two previous sections have shown that Helsinki’s semiotic neighborhoods lie in the southern part of town. This section looks at whether inscriptions follow the real thing. The map in the Appendix shows how Helsinki’s semiotic businesses are construed from three alternative value systems. Commercial and general-purpose maps locate the central point in the downtown area, while the art and design-oriented maps place it slightly southwest of downtown. Still, even on these maps, Helsinki’s central point lies in the immediate vicinity of downtown. 23 These figures suggest two quantitative Thus, the distance between the central points in commercial maps criteria for a semiotic neighborhood. and the arts map is only about five blocks, which makes it barely First, it has to be an economically active more than 500 meters (under 1,700 feet). Statistically, this distance place. Three design offices are not is not significant(t-test>.70). Downtown’s lively commercial world enough to make a neighborhood semi- otic, if there is no other business in the effectively biases this estimate. See the map of Helsinki in the area. Secondly, more than ten percent of Appendix. its business activity has to be semiotic Although Helsinki’s southern neighborhoods have not gained in character. In Helsinki, these criteria distinct identities in cultural inscriptions, two factors should be make three neighborhoods semiotic: noted. First, south Helsinki as a whole becomes a semiotic neighbor- Punavuori (17%), Ullanlinna (10%), and hood if we situate the picture given by these inscriptions in the urban Kaartinkaupunki (9–10%). However, although these measures have the virtue ecology of the Helsinki region: all maps place Helsinki’s semiotic of being simple, they ought to be refined business in a small area in the south. Secondly, if we look at semiotic using data from other cities. business only, there are rudiments of differentiation in perceptions of

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 southern neighborhoods. As Table 2 shows, Helsinki This Week Table 2 Semiotic Businesses in Helsinki This Week, 1960–2000 (frequencies)

Neighborhood 1960 19701 19801 1990 2000 Combined Downtown 72 Kluuvi 8 3 4 10 20 45 Kamppi 0 1321218 Kaartinkaupunki 0 033410 Downtown Rim 21 Punavuori 3 112613 Ullanlinna 0 01146 Kruununhaka 0 00112

1 Only major shopping street mentioned in 1970 and 1980.

has consistently placed the main shopping area for semiotic goods in the downtown area. In the downtown rim, only Punavuori and Ullanlinna received attention before the 1990s. However, this perception changed in the 1990s. Table 3 shows how three tourism maps in 2000 displayed semiotic businesses, broken down by neighborhood. For this table, the top five neighbor- hoods in each map have been ranked from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest score). Again, downtown ranks as the main shopping area, though nearby neighborhoods increasingly challenge it. In particu- lar, in the design-oriented b-guided map, Punavuori (the downtown rim) follows Kamppi (downtown) at the top, in front of the other downtown neighborhoods of Kaartinkaupunki and Kluuvi. Without Stockmann’s downtown-centered commercial vision, Punavuori would top the table together with Kluuvi (downtown).

Table 3 The Ranking of Semiotic Neighborhoods in Three Shopping Guides (2000)

Neighborhood Helsinki This Week b-guided.net Stockmann Sum Downtown 25 Kluuvi 5 3 5 12 Kamppi 0 5 0 5 Kaartinkaupunki 3 1 4 8 Downtown Rim 18 Punavuori 4 4 0 8 Ullanlinna 3 2 1 6 Etu-Toolo 0 0 3 3 Kruununhaka 1 0 0 1 Other South 0 022

5 = Neighborhood with most markings on each map. 1 = Neighborhood with fewest markings..

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 As this analysis shows, these representations follow the real thing. However, these neighborhoods are hardly celebrated as such in the press and national imagination. A few downtown streets have come to be known for their creative qualities,24 but most attention in the popular press goes to bars and nightlife. Much of this public- ity is targeted to a youthful audience, whose members are neither interested in, nor wealthy enough to attract attention from, the more exclusive types of semiotic business. This, of course, contrasts with global cities, in which tourism industries follow commercial developments in minute detail, and offer these as prime attractions for tourists. One obvious reason is that Helsinki’s downtown is situated on a narrow cape, which tends to concentrate many economic activities close together.25 The absence of geographic markers such as the island in Stockholm, or the medieval old town in Copenhagen, makes differences between neighborhoods difficult to perceive. Also, unlike New York or London, old industrial, harbor, and warehouse districts were not

24 C. Landry, Helsinki: Towards a Creative opened for commercial and residential use on a significant scale until City (Helsinki: Comedia and Helsingin the late 1980s. The real estate business operates with old neighbor- kaupungin tietokeskus, 1998). hood names instead of manipulating perceptions with New York- 25 L. Aario, The Inner Differentiation style innovations.26 Finally, south Helsinki neighborhoods by and of the Large Cities in Finland (Turku, large have been designed by a fairly small group of architects and Finland: Fennia, 1952); and J. Siipi, master builders in the national romantic and art deco styles.27 For an Pääkaupunkiyhteiskunta ja sen historia (Helsinki: Helsingin kaupungin historia untrained eye, a walk around the south does not become a catalogue V.1, 1957) [The Capital and its History, of distinct neighborhoods, for their look and feel does not change part V.1. in Finnish]. dramatically as one passes from one neighborhood to the next. 26 Zukin shows how the real estate profes- However, rudiments of such area identities exist in Helsinki, and sion invented the acronym “SoHo” in semiotic business is one of the driving forces in the differentiation an effort to turn former industrial area into more profitable residential and of urban space. business districts. Of course, SoHo was just the first in a long line of increasingly Conclusions and Discussion ingenious names and acronyms aimed at This paper has introduced the notion of semiotic neighborhoods. effacing working-class and slum associa- This concept describes areas of town in which there is a high concen- tions from old neighborhood names in tration of semiotic shops, with fewer in other districts, and when this Manhattan and Brooklyn. See S. Zukin, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban semiotic quality is recognized in maps and other institutionalized Change (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers cultural constructions. The term is justified when these three condi- University Press, 1989). tions are met. These neighborhoods are a distinct aspect of city land- 27 J. Moorhouse, et al., Helsingin scape today, although routine consumption, mass consumption, and jugendarkkitehtuuri 1895–1915 (Helsinki: extravagant “cathedrals of consumption” have received much more Otava, 2002). [Jugend Architecture in 28 Helsinki, in Finnish]. scholarly attention than whole neighborhoods in cities. “Semiotic 28 See S. Zukin, The Cultures of Cities, neighborhoods” captures a visible, but largely neglected aspect of Chapter 6; and M. B. Miller, The Bon consumer culture, the trade of sophisticated goods targeting mostly Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the the upper-middle classes and tourists. These areas also are land- Department Store, 1869–1920. The term marks in real estate, trend magazines, and tourism, each making “cathedrals of consumption” is from business out of the semiotics of space. G. Ritzer, Enchanting the Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of In their archetypal form, semiotic neighborhoods can be Consumption (Thousand Oaks: Pine found in global cities such as Los Angeles, Paris, and London. Forge, 1999). However, this paper shows that this concept describes consump-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 tion in smaller cities as well, even though they have a more modest luxury sector than global cities. An analysis of these neighborhoods in Helsinki shows that south Helsinki dominates the trade in arts, antiques, and other types of highly semiotic goods. Other parts of the city have not been able to compete with these neighborhoods. In fact, the south has become increasingly “semiotized” in the midst of suburban sprawl. In conceptual terms, it is important to distinguish semiotic neighborhoods from two other types of areas. First, they are differ- ent from entertainment districts, as characterized by theaters, movie theaters, and popular restaurants and bars.29 Semiotic neighborhoods and entertainment districts may overlap, but this is not necessarily the case. In Helsinki, the downtown area is the dominant entertain- ment district. On the rim of downtown, there are clusters of bars and restaurants in a few streets, but no crowd-gathering establishments such as multiplex cinemas. Rather, movie theaters in the downtown rim target selected audiences with interest in art cinema. Secondly, semiotic neighborhoods differ from the mall culture typical to suburbanized lifestyle. Of course, some overlapping features exist. Management in upscale malls has realized the potential of semiotic business, and attracts it to malls. Still, the difference is clear: in malls, the environment is centrally controlled, cleaned, and managed. Outside the limits of the mall is spread a suburban mat of roads and homes. In semiotic neighborhoods, a customer faces the city, in which shop owners do not have control over the streetscape. Interestingly, semiotic neighborhoods appeared in Helsinki at the same time as they did in global cities, if Saskia Sassen’s timing is correct.30 However, the reasons for expansion must be different: 29 Cf. T. Santasalo and H. Heusala, Helsingin keskustan kaupallinen rakenne Helsinki’s financial sector is far smaller than London’s and New (Helsinki: Helsingin kaupunginkan- York’s. Also, its growth in the 1980s took place too late to explain the slian julkaisusarja A 16, 2002) [The growth of semiotic business in the first place. Of course, it is possible Commercial Structure of Downtown that the present consumption scene first originated in global cities Helsinki, in Finnish] and then spread to smaller cities. However, some evidence speaks 30 S. Sassen, The Global City: New York, against this explanation. For example, Narotzky dates the growth London, Tokyo. 31 V. Narotzky, “A Different and New of design consumption in Barcelona to the 1980s, and links it to the Refinement: Design in Barcelona, 1960– Olympic Games and the democratization of Spain after Franco’s 1990.” regime. Modern design provided distance from the Franco era, and 32 Consumption of semiotic goods and the Olympics made Barcelona a desired tourism destination. Once services indeed grew simultaneously the locals learned to recognize good design, there was sufficient with consumerism in Finland, if we follow historians of consumption. Cf. demand to maintain a local design industry, even though the origi- 31 V. Heinonen, Näin alkoi kulutusjuhla. nal impetuses were no longer present. Suomalaisen kulutusyhteiskunnan In Helsinki, development has been evolutionary rather than rakenteistuminen. In K. Hyvönen, et prompted by Barcelona-like historical events. A more promising al., eds., Hyvää elämää. 90 vuotta starting point is the interaction of consumers, producers, media, and suomalaista kulutustutkimusta (Helsinki: the public sector. First, the expansion of higher education, media- Kuluttajatutkimuskeskus ja Tilastokeskus, 2000), 14–20. [How the Consumption intensive culture, and the welfare state in the 1960s created a mass Fiesta Began: The Structuration of of cultivated consumers with nontraditional values, and stable earn- Finnish Consumer Society, in Finnish]. ings that peaked by the end of the 1970s.32 Secondly, by that time, the

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 design professions, as we know them today, were largely in existence to exploit and shape this evolving market, to co-opt public policy, and to supply the newly-built welfare infrastructure with goods and expertise. Third, Finnish design achieved international attention in the sixties, making design a legitimate and even coveted subject of consumption. The end of the seventies was the first time when all these conditions were working simultaneously, creating new prac- tices and structures for both consumption and production. When the news media began to popularize a consumption-centered lifestyle in the eighties, this ideology fell upon a fertile ground that had formed in the previous two decades. Of course, a historical explanation of developments in Helsinki is beyond the limits of this paper. Still, these conjectures suggest that local reasons probably account for the expansion, rather than any single factor, such as the new middle classes or diffusion from global cities, even though both may have played a part in the process. This paper opens new vistas for research. The concept can be used both as a dependent and an independent variable. For example, we can pose questions concerning the functions of semiotic neigh- borhoods in cities and the modern market economy, as well as ask what factors account for the birth and recent expansion of these areas. Such analysis also may throw new light on various theoreti- cal arguments about modern consumption. Empirical studies have shown that sign-oriented consumption is largely limited to a few professional lifestyles such as marketing.33 This paper suggests that these forms of consumption have a spatial aspect as well: this move- ment towards a society of experience does not treat areas equally, but concentrates in some parts of cities. Thus, it may well be that cities proceed towards “Disney- fication,” characterized by a Baudrillardian postmodern experi- ence in which even having a cup of coffee becomes a path through a specifically designed experience. Such extremes may exist in places such as Las Vegas, London’s Soho, and in several places in Manhattan.34 However, these are extreme cases, and we should

33 See M. Savage, et al., Property, generalize from them cautiously. This paper suggests that such Bureaucracy, and Culture. developments take place only in a few places. Furthermore, this 34 See G. Ritzer, Enchanting the development is largely partial: in Helsinki, only the downtown area Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the is thoroughly dominated by commercial activities. In other parts of Means of Consumption; and J. Hannigan, south Helsinki, the lifestyle is more tranquil: enough people live Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis (London: and own homes there to make these areas multifunctional in Jane 35 Routledge, 1998). Jacobs’ sense. 35 J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great By and large, Helsinki’s southern neighborhoods have suc- American Cities (New York: Vintage, cessfully resisted becoming thoroughly commercial. Since the end 1961/1992). of 1960s, the City of Helsinki policy has aimed at keeping even the 36 Cf. O. Turpeinen, T. Herranen and K. central parts of the town populated.36 Partly because of this policy, Hoffman, Helsingin historia vuodesta 1945 (Helsinki: Helsingin kaupunki, 1997), and partly because of the ups and downs of the economy, most parts 155–171 [The History of Helsinki since of south Helsinki have remained populated (but see the Appendix). 1945, in Finnish] Consequently, there is enough local demand to keep grocery stores

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 and other modestly priced shops in business, which in turn makes south Helsinki an attractive living environment for diverse people. Even today, inhabitants in this area range from upper-middle class to the less fortunate, and from young professionals and families with children to senior citizens, which creates a demand for a great variety of ordinary goods and services. South Helsinki has become neither a shopping paradise, nor an entertainment district, quiet during the daytime, and alive only after dark.

Appendix

Figure 4 Southern Neighborhoods and City Facts, Helsinki.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0747936053630142 by guest on 26 September 2021 In 2000, these south Helsinki neighborhoods had about 56,500 inhabitants and 87,200 workplaces in an area of approximately 6 km2 (i.e., not including land area with parks, harbors, major traffic areas, and industrial areas). This makes up less than five percent of all inhabited area in the city, while the inhabited area in other town is about 127 km2 (my estimate). In 1962, more than thirty-one percent of Helsinki’s inhabitants lived in the south. In 1997, the figure was about eleven percent. The downtown area, marked with a black line, consists of Kaartinkaupunki, Kluuvi, and the eastern part of Kamppi. Government buildings and the University of Helsinki’s central campus fill the western part of Kruununhaka. Kluuvi and Kaartin- kaupunki have very few permanent residents. Adjacent parts of these

37 As noted by Aario (L. Aario, The three neighborhoods also are void of inhabitants. This uninhabited Inner Differentiation of the Large area is about 2.5–3 square kilometers in size. This geographic pattern Cities in Finland); Siipi (J. Siipi, has its origins at the end of the nineteenth century.37 Pääkaupunkiyhteiskunta ja sen historia); In 2000, the city of Helsinki had approximately 550,000 and S-E. Åström, Samhällsplanering inhabitants. It is surrounded by two major independent communi- i Helsingfors, 1810–1910 (Helsinki: Mercator, 1957) [Town Planning in ties, Espoo and Vantaa, but the metropolitan area extends beyond Helsinki, 1810–1910, in Swedish]. both. The Helsinki metropolitan area has approximately 1.2 million 38 S. Laakso, Yritystoiminnan alueellinen inhabitants. Between the end of the 1960s and early 1990s, practically erikoistuminen pääkaupunkiseudulla; and all growth in the area took place in Espoo and Vantaa. Work and I. Koskinen, “Tuleeko keskustasta kulu- retail trade have followed the population.38 tusparatiisi?” A recent Europe-wide statistical analysis of forty-eight 39 S. Laakso, The Regional Economy of Helsinki from an International metro politan areas in Europe revealed that, in terms of gross value Perspective (Web Publications 10/03, added (GVA) per capita, Vienna, Paris, Helsinki, Zurich, and the Helsinki: Helsinki City Urban Facts, 2003). other Nordic capitals follow Brussels and Hamburg at the top. With (www.hel.fi/tieke/) Dublin, Helsinki tops the list of the fastest-growing cities.39

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